Tag Archives: Intel

Tizen just hit the 1.0 release last week (codenamed Larkspur), and at the Tizen Conference I’ve had the chance to play with the prototype device that Samsung has been handing out to developers to test their applications. Its basically a super large screen device, (4.65 inch my guess is about 4.3-4.7″ inches, 1280 x 720p HD Super AMOLED) that’s running on an 1.2 Ghz dual core A9 chip, with 1 GB of RAM. There’s also an 8 MP camera. In some cases it contains a cellular radio, while some device are WIFI only. There’s no word on what clock speed are they running at, or the the size of battery that’s inside.

While it is a reference design, it still gives us an idea of what the Tizen UI will look like and the core functionality that will come with it. We’ve already known that Tizen has an excellent HTML5 browser that bests everything currently on the market. After playing with the phone, we now know that it is heavily inspired from what Samsung’s been doing with TouchWiz. There’s a pulldown notification area just like Android, there are WIFI, Bluetooth toggles etc just like on Touch Wiz, multiple homescreens and so on. More importantly, there’s support for tethering out of the box, there’s also support for Google, Facebook and Twitter accounts out of the box so that you can sync your contacts nicely. There even seem to be push notifications for activity on Facebook etc, although I haven’t seen it in action. Next, there’s support for services like Picassa, YouTube to aid in uploading content.

I spent some time with the device and captured my initial impressions as I went though the process of exploring the new OS. The following 7 minute video should give you a fair idea of what to expect on Tizen.

Again, this was a reference device and the load times, speed of operation etc does in no way represent what a real-world Tizen phone would be capable of.

If you are looking for pictures of the prototype device our friends at Tizen Talk have a few. What do you think of Tizen?

Its been just about 24 hours since Nokia announced the N9 and since then the interwebs have been going crazy with tons of N9 chatter, every small seemingly inconsequential detail is also being lapped up, every hands on scrutinized and people are still hungry for more. Not for a long time has there been so much excitement about a Nokia device, not even the N8 produced the kind of euphoria that has swept across Nokia fans the world over.

Even Nokia’s harshest critics have come out with words of praise, something that perhaps has come as a pleasant surprise to Nokia itself. Infact I am yet to witness any real negative feedback for the device. The only complaint people seem to have is that its based on a dead platform. Nokia through its language about the N9 helping shape future Windows Phone devices and innovation has virtually confirmed that they have no plans to make another MeeGo device.

Its almost a paradox, Nokia tried pleasing the technorati the last few years and it didn’t really work. Then they decided that MeeGo wasn’t good enough internally and now the media seems to like it.

Once we all saw what the N9 could do, I had a feeling sooner or later we’d start seeing Nokia please keep MeeGo petitions, but it took a mere 6 hours for it to start.

A Twitter petition, Twitition if you will, has already started doing the rounds and in a short period has garnered over 700 signatures, including those of many Nokia employees. You can sign it here if you feel inclined.

The Nokia N9 does make you wonder what if Feb 11 hadn’t happened, I have already blogged my thoughts here. But will any of this change Nokia’s stance on MeeGo? Here’s what I think can happen, Nokia has said that it’ll relegate MeeGo to the future disruption category, what that means is that they could still release one MeeGo smartphone every year and flood the market with their Windows Phone devices meanwhile. Symbian will be supported till 2016, that’s 5 years away. With Qt acting as the bridge and getting better all the time, we should still see a fair quantity of apps around. This way they keep everyone happy.

But, here is another scenario. The N9 will ship by September, around the same time the next iPhone will ship and people will start to make comparisons. This will also be the time when the noise for Nokia to keep MeeGo will grow stronger as more and more people experience the N9. But slowly the main stream media will start doing comparisons with the iPhone 5’s retina display, dual core processors and what not. The fans’ attention will waiver and it’ll soon be time for Nokia World in October. All attention will be on Nokia’s reply to the iPhone 5 with their first Windows Phone device. It’ll be announced on October 26 and soon people will begin to begin forget the N9.

Some people at Nokia will breathe a sign of relief. After all, MeeGo becoming successful will present more questions than answers for Nokia. They can’t have people begin to start questioning its Feb 11 decisions, not when the shares have already tanked.

Anyway, it can play out either way, I personally would like to see Nokia release one MeeGo device every year, just to keep Microsoft interested, if nothing else.

Nokia still plans to ship one MeeGo device this year, but with the whole Qt ecosystem gone and virtually zero developer traction guaranteed, things aren’t looking up for Nokia’s MeeGo effort.

Meanwhile, Intel has put out the following statement:

While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.

Our strategy has always been to provide choice when it comes to operating systems, a strategy that includes Windows, Android, and MeeGo. This is not changing.

MeeGo is not just a phone OS, it supports multiple devices. And we’re seeing momentum across multiple segments – automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and our Intel silicon will be in a phone that ships this year.

Although Intel spokeswoman Suzy Ramirez has later clarified that the last line doesn’t mean that there will be a MeeGo smartphone based on Intel’s hardware.

As much as well all wanted MeeGo to be the next big smartphone OS, without Nokia behind it, I don’t see it gaining any traction on smartphones. Like Intel points out, there are still other uses for MeeGo, but none of them as exciting.

Today is the ‘unconference’ day of the first ever ‘MeeGo Conference’ and thus much more relaxed. The last two days have had the Aviva Stadium abuzz with packed sessions, lots of energy and a ton of chatter about the future of MeeGo. Add to that that every attendee of the MeeGo Conference is being given away a MeeGo touting Lenovo IdeaPad and you can image what the atmosphere is like.

But instead of trying to convey what is going on in words, here are tons of pictures from day 1, 2 and 3. Time to put the ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ proverb to the test.

Thanks to @_Nexus on Twitter, I’ve just come across these short ad films that Intel’s produced to showcase MeeGo. If MeeGo has to succeed in a big way, advertising and brand recognition will have to play a major role and its good to see Intel start now.

The ad film is more developer focused, but I though you might to watch it anyway.